"Original" Frank Costanza

The local TV column says that before Jerry Stiller got the part, another actor played George's father for one episode. I realize the cast change isn't so unusual (didn't Jerry also have a different actor as his father?). But the article goes on to say that all memories of the first actor as Frank Costanza have been "expunged, since his scenes were re-shot with Stiller for syndication." If this is true,...Does anybody know who this actor was? And which episode he was in? Have any fans kept videos of that original broadcast?

I believe his name is John Randolph, and that he played Jack Nicholson's father in "Prizzi's Honor." I remember seeing him play Frank Costanza, but, you noted, and as reported in Entertainment Weekly, the scenes were reshot so who knows if/when the originals will ever be seen?

Thanks for answering my question! It's especially interesting to learn that the First Frank was such a recognizable character actor. I probably would have guessed (wrongly) he was a no-name player, just based on the fact that they took the trouble to re-shoot his scenes. Nobody bothered to go back and change the scenes with Jerry's original dad,...did they? And on "Mad About You" they still show re-runs with various versions of Jamie's parents. So I wonder if anybody knows of any other parts where a cast change was "back-dated" or retro-recast for syndication..?

I know of some people whose original moms and dads changed. Oh yeah, they WERE told.

Alex Andreadis wrote in article ...

"So I wonder if anybody knows of any other parts where a cast change was "back-dated" or retro-recast for syndication..?"

     Actually, it happened again on Seinfeld...sort of.
When we first hear about (and hear from) Newman
in an early episode, we actually don't see him, just
hear him yelling out to the street and threatening to
kill himself. The original voice for the character in
that one episode when Newman was seen and not
heard was Larry David (who you've also seen/heard
as the voice of George Steinbrenner and as Frank
Costanza's cape-wearing lawyer).
     When the show went into syndication, the
voice track was recut with the voice of Wayne Knight,
who has always played Newman on screen since the
character made his first on-camera appearance about
a year into the show's run.

I suspect the reason the very early Seinfeld episode (in which Philip Bruns, not Barney Martin, was cast as Jerry's dad) was never reshot, was because most of the scenes---not just one---would have had to be redone. It's hard to justify literally re-shooting nearly an entire episode to cover over one cast change. How do you un-do all the subtle changes in the set and props over the years, and take a half-dozen years off the ages of the whole cast? Can't be done...not worth it to try.